To grip or not to grip: An experimental approach for understanding the use of prehensile areas in mousterian tools
Javier Baena Preysler, Concepción Torres Navas, Sara Pérez Díaz, Guillermo Bustos‐Pérez, Francesca Romagnoli · LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) · 2016
The existence of a more or less complex handling technology with the lithic tools during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic is an interesting topic for understanding aspects of the human behavior during these periods. In this work we present a preliminary experimental evaluation of the possible functionality of prehensile area in some of the most representative lithic types of the Mousterian assemblages (dorsal elements and levallois chapeau de gendarme proximal area), in which the morphological comparative analysis of imprints and prehensile tool areas, is compared by 3D analysis procedures. Preliminary results indicate that there is a close relationship between the digital grasp morphologie and the prehensile area of some Mousterian techno-types. We also discussed the relevance and significance of these provisional conclusions in the context of hunter gather communities